buriedinfibre.com

So I’m just gonna pretend it’s last Wednesday and I’ve managed to recover completely and update the blog in a timely manner. I’m totally not going to acknowledge that it’s taken me almost a week to feel even remotely myself again or that single malt was involved in the recovery.

The monkey left for Sweden the day after I got back and will be there for another week. The house is blissfully quiet and I may never leave it. I hear there are services that will deliver your groceries, sounds good!

But where was I? Oh yeah, Oregon. I have pictures!

My friends had a nest baby chipmunks in their car that they lovingly nursed for a few days before handing them over to the Audobon people. Baby chipmunks are painfully cute. Seriously. They are unbelievably cute.

Just look at this:

Sofa King cute!

We left for Eugene and Black Sheep Festival on Thursday and got the booth set up in very good time. Then it was off to the really good Thai place for lunch and back there again later for drinks *ahem* dinner. Yeah, we totally had dinner.

Here’s Tina showing me the way to Eugene:

She’s always so very helpful!

Black Sheep had lots of, well sheep. Like these Wensleydales.

And these Shetland lambs. Again, Sofa King cute.

I managed to make a few purchases. Some pygora, a couple of spindles, a basket and a couple of wheels.

Yes. More than one wheel. Shut up already. They’re really small.

The Hansen, complete with Woolee Winder and spare bobbins. Don’t wear it out Orion!

And the Wee Spin. I couldn’t resist this little wheel. It was insanely cheap and is very much like the pocket wheel.

Both wheels are living at Holly’s till mid July as getting them home on the train would have been mildly problematic.

There was a little stream behind our hotel in Eugene that was full of wildlife. Raccoons, mallards, Canada geese and their goslings (the damn things really are everywhere) and nutria. I had never seen a nutria up close but there were several of them on the grass along the streamside path just eating grass in the sunshine. They really do look like the offspring of a beaver and an otter.

Tina also found these:

Some sort of wild cucumber. Prickly pear?

All in all it was a great trip. I had a lot of fun and got to spend time with lovely friends.

Now if we could just have some summer weather!

So I’ve spent about an hour trying to get my pics to import and I can’t get it to work. So I’ll post all this stuff on Wednesday when I can get back on my Mac.

Stupid windows netbook.

Feh.

I will be in Oregon. I’m taking the train and going in style. Did the upgrade to business class ’cause the trip takes 8 hours and the upgrade was only $20. I have to get up at the asscrack of dawn to do it, so it better be worth it.

I’ve got a small bag full of clothes and a slightly smaller bag full of electronic equipment supposed to make my life simpler. I question the last part of that statement as I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the last few days programming, uploading and charging these modern conveniences. And they’re small, but now that they’re all in one bag, they’re kinda heavy. Don’t get me wrong, four books would weigh considerably more than my Kindle, but I think the netbook makes up the saved poundage.

Anyway, I’m going to visit some friends, take in the Black Sheep festival (and maybe buy another wheel) in Eugene and then haul my sorry ass home again so the monkey can go to Sweden.

Maybe.

Afterall, if that volcano erupts in Iceland, he either won’t be going anywhere or won’t be coming back. I should take bets on it!

Next post will have pictures. Promise.

I have a very special love/hate relationship with my car.

I love my car. It’s small, fast and I can take the roof off when then sun comes out. Not to mention it’s wonderful fuel economy.

BUT

It leaks. And it’s that charming shade of Honda red that fades like a mofo if you look at it funny. Someone’s looked at my car funny a fair bit.

These things in mind and factoring in that the monkey sort of hates my car and has done since I bought it, we went car shopping.

The monkey has a 3 year old Mazda and the dealership was having what we laughingly now call a “SALE!” for previous customers only. We thought this might be a good opportunity to buy a new (or new to me) vehicle and forgo a winter of me whining about the horrible frozen state of the interior of my car.

I spent some time online researching certain models I was interested in and narrowed it down to two. Two incredibly different cars, but just the two. The Kia Soul and the Mazda 3 Sport. We started at Kia sans appointment and were almost immediately whisked into a Soul of the model I wanted and off on a test drive. I almost to hate to admit how much I loved it. I loved it a lot. It was much bigger than I thought it would be but it drove and handled like a very small car. It lagged a bit on hills, but this was the very base model and I haven’t had an engine that small for a very long time.

Then we were off to Mazda, where, despite our appointment, we had to wait. Quite a while. Then we had to wait some more for the car (not the model I wanted even) to be gassed up. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was a nice car. Very peppy, really responsive, almost too responsive for my taste. It was what I refer to as, “twitchy”. I’m not used to twitchy and don’t much care for it. My car has power assist steering and that’s fine with me. Before it, I’d had armstrong steering in all my other cars. I don’t mind showing the car the way. The brakes were equally twitchy. I almost put the monkey through the windscreen at one point.

And really, I was already in love. With the Soul.

After surviving the bit of pressure the salesman tried to apply, we went home where I decided to sleep on it.

The decision I came is this: I’m going to fix up my car. Disassemble the rear end and fix the leaks and repaint it. I’m thinking of doing the painting myself. I’ve sprayed auto paint on guitars, this is just a larger surface which actually makes it a little easier.  Pretty sure I can manage it.

I’ll give my car the winter and see how it does and then decide on a new car or not. The 2011 Souls will be out by then too. Maybe they’ll have a new model with a DOHC 2.5L engine…

On a completely different topic…

I have simply lovely friends! Feeling pretty lucky today as this arrived in the post:

An awesome knitting bag, beautiful fibre and hand balm that smells good enough to eat. I managed to get a pic before I drafted the fibre and started spinning it with my Whirling Dervish. Stuff feels just amazing!

Thanks Leslie! I can’t wait to see you at Black Sheep. Where I might be making another wheel acquisition…